Mostly battle reports of games of Warhammer 40k, and some hobby and tactics stuff as well.

Mar 10, 2013

Daemons - Fast Attack

On to the real Fast Attack then!

Flesh Hounds of Khorne

S4 (5 on the charge), Beasts, T4 and 2W and they have Scout. 16
points per model. These seem to be ideal for placing on the board
really. They're dangerous enough to actually threaten the enemy, and
they're cheap enough that you can take quite
a few of them and with to wounds and T4 they'll survive some incoming
fire as well while they move up the board. Very straight forward unit.
Take units of 10-15 and protect the flanks, support charges, eat
Overwatch. Seems very solid to me, and always useful!

Screamers of Tzeentch

Everyones favourite unit to hate… now for a completely different
reason! So, they changed Lamprey's Bite to replace ALL of it's normal
attacks for ONE S5 AP2 Armourbane one per model. Meaning you'll be
pretty good against AV12 or less. Above 12
it starts to get a bit iffy. Now, having AV12 or higher in Rear Armour
isn't very common though… but anyway.

They also are jetbikes with a Slashing attack for turbo-boosting over
enemies. So, being really fast, and being able to do some damage while
moving… but lacking much punch in assault I see them as a unit with
which to quickly locate weak enemies
and finnish them off. Or if you're playing stuff like Artillery or
Devastators they could slash their way across his army, and then charge.
WS3, is a tough one though - because do you chose AP2 and get 4,5 S5
hits for a full unit of 9, or do you chose 18 hits
at AP- with S4 for the same unit? Neither choice is that great really…
but if you chose your targets wisely at least you'll be able to stop a
shooty unit to shoot for a couple of turns. Oh, and for the record - I'd
probably go with normal attacks on the charge
turn, and then switch to AP2 ones for further turns.

So a tricky unit to use, as they'll get really crippled with a bad match up.

Plague Drones of Nurgle

So, now Nurgle have their own version of Bloodcrushers. The big
difference being that Bloodcrushers hit a lot harder, while Plague
Drones are T5 and Shrouded as well as slightly faster (Bloodcrushers run
1D6", Plague Drones jump 2D6 in the Assault
phase). Shrouded is a bit iffy on this unit, because they're both
Cavalry and Jet Packs… and both of those think that area terrain is
scary…

In either case, they're the fastest, toughest Icon bearer that you'll
find in this book. You'll be pretty sure to have your Icon where you
need it if you put it on these guys. Imagine this unit running (or well,
jumping) up the board… and then
in turn 2 a Great Unclean One and some fully buffed units of
Plaguebearers with Heralds materialise right in front of the enemy lines
with no scatter…

So anyway, their upgrades are mostly focused on making them hit a bit
harder since they obviously all ready have survivability. You can give
them a 12" poisoned range attack, as well as chose between Poison (3+)
or one Instant Death per model
in combat. So you need to chose your prime target here obviously, as
you can't take both. It feels like Poison (3+) and the shooting attack
is usable in more situations and go better together… but that's also an
additional +10 points per model. Which is a
lot. But if you have the points… otherwise I'd stick with one of the
three options only.

So, if you don't buff the whole unit you can take Rewards for the
Champion instead… and the unit obviously all ready have good defence -
so might as well go for some offence here. I think one roll on Lesser
Rewards is my option of choice here.
Poisoned AP2 attacks sounds very tempting…

Chaos Furies

Well… here's the oddball unit of this codex for sure. Their statline
looks pretty fine… until you reach their Ld of 2. Yes, you read that
right. 2. This combined with Daemonic Instability means that you never,
ever want to fight a unit that will
hit you back. Because even if you lose combat by only 1 you'll have to
make a Ld test, which on average will be a roll of 7… which means you'll
lose an additional 5 models. Ouch. If they were super-cheap that might
not be so bad… but they're 6 points each.
Which is simply too much to just give away like that. Or maybe, if you
could take a HUGE unit it'd be okay… but you're capped at 20. Would you
really like a unit that when it loses combat will on average lose a
quarter of it's numbers? No, didn't think so…

You can however upgrade them to follow a specific God, but that makes
them more expensive (7-8 points per model). I can't think of a single
reason to make them Daemons of Tzeentch or Nurgle. Khorne however gives
them Furious Charge and thus S5.
Now they could go Transport-hunting and have decent chances against
back armour 10. Slaanesh grants Rending - and as such a similar role
there as well - and maybe, just maybe you could throw them at a unit of
Terminators and hope to thin them out a bit before
your real unit is ready to deal with them.

So… there could be use for them. If there were no other choices in
the Fast Attack slot… but now we have several great choices so it's a
bit hard to motivate why to take them…

Seekers of Slaanesh

For three points more than a Daemonette you get a Daemonette that
moves twice as fast with one more attack. So basically you can do
everything you can do with Daemonettes (except grab objectives) with
this unit, just you'll be mobile. More mobile
is a good quality for a unit carrying a Icon… This Icon could also be
the Rapturous standard, if you should want to support another unit in
assault once per game. Not a bad idea I reckon, as you can't score with
them anyway (unless it's The Scouring).

The other thing they can do that Daemonettes can't is Outflank with
Acute Senses. That is very much situational however. But if you join a
Herald with them, or roll a Reward for the Champion like the Hellfire
Gaze or Corrosive Breath you might
want to get that side-armour shot I suppose.

Hellflayer of Slaanesh

No options for this one. I don't see the point of it either, because
it's the same thing as a normal Seeker Chariot except it's 20 points
more expensive, can't be a squadron but have a special rule granting the
Alluress some extra attacks if the
Hammer of Wrath kills something. If you go with Slaanesh Chariots, I'd
rather have a Cavalcade so skip this one...